October 29, 2008 at 10:59 am ·
Filed under Live Services, Development, IE8
In this post and the few next ones, I’ll take you on a tour through the IE8 features, with some tips and tricks on the side. This series should give you a complete overview of what’s new and why it’s cool and better. Some of the things will not be new to you if you’re already a happy user of Beta 2, other things might change the way you use IE8 and all together, if you’re a consumer still stuck on IE7, these posts should deliver enough arguments to make you consider upgrading. Whichever your interest is, enjoy the posts and if you have any questions, just post them in the comments or ping me in some other digital way.
PART 1: BREAKING OUT OF THE PAGE - Read the rest of this entry »
October 29, 2008 at 1:11 am ·
Filed under Video, Technology, Live Services, WoW
EVER !
At the PDC Showoff tonight the ACE Lab at Carlton University in Canada led by Jon Wade, submitted a video that showed an incredible multi-channel version of the Virtual Earth control that provides a 180 degree view of Virtual Earth 3D.
The screen is created using 8 high-end full 1080p projectors. The code is a modified version of a sample project with a custom camera class to property adjust the FOV and camera offset for each projector and some code to synchronize the camera positions across the network. In all it took them roughly 10 hours of coding to build this viewer.
October 29, 2008 at 1:00 am ·
Filed under Games, Video, Technology, Development
Microsoft ESP is a developer-ready platform that enables the creation of powerful, affordable solutions to augment real-world training, support decisionmaking, and enable economical R&D modeling. The ESP platform engine, tools, and content are already used today in Microsoft Flight Simulator X, a popular entertainment platform for immersive simulation and visualization. ESP runs on Microsoft Windows-based PCs and supports rapid simulation development, rich extensibility, and built-in integration with industry-standard hardware devices, including joysticks, game controllers, and more. ESP models the entire world, while also allowing developers to easily add their own content, objects, scenery, simulation functionality, and scenarios to create custom training solutions.
<![CDATA[<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=2fe3fd3e-4b32-4f7b-a285-ebde846b7020" target="_new" title="Microsoft ESP">Video: Microsoft ESP</a>]]>
Related Links:
October 28, 2008 at 11:35 pm ·
Filed under Technology, Motion, Windows7
The Windows Sensor and Location platform, which is new for Windows 7, enables your computer and applications to adapt to their current environment. With location sensors — including GPS devices, WWAN radios, and even triangulation technology — your applications and gadgets can know exactly where they are, enabling them to provide more locally relevant content and functionality. Ambient light sensors, for example, can allow your computer to automatically adjust your screen’s brightness based on the current lighting conditions. They can also enable applications to optimize their content for readability, making your computer more useful in a range of operating environments than ever before.
The platform provides a standard way to integrate sensor and location devices into Windows, as well as a standard programming interface for applications to take advantage of these devices. On Windows 7, the user has control over how data from these devices is exposed to applications. Hardware manufacturers can learn how to write sensor and location drivers by installing the Windows 7 WDK. Developers can learn how to write location-aware and sensor-enabled applications by installing the Windows 7 SDK.
Sensor and Location White Papers
Sensor and Location Labs
Stay on track with the WHDC - Windows Hardware Developer Central
October 28, 2008 at 8:13 pm ·
Filed under Technology, Releases, Live Services, Cloud Services
At the PDC conference they’ve just announced that the next release of Microsoft Office will include browser-based versions of some the most used pieces of the Microsoft Office Suite. Powerpoint, Excel, OneNote and Word will be made available in a “lightweight version”, without losing their rich functionality, and even better, they’ve included the ribbons!
The apps will enable users to create, edit and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents through the various browsers out there. So yes, that includes Firefox and Safari. The collective name for the apps in the cloud is “Office Web Applications” (OWA). The OWA will allow real time editing and updating, and you can for instance embed part of an Excel document (a chart) into a blogpost on your Windows Live Space. If you or someone else then edits the data that compiles this chart online, the posted chart will automagically update and display its data correctly according to the new input.
Microsoft Senior Vice President Chris Capossela:
We are on a path to deliver all our technology as “software plus services,” and today is an important milestone in this journey. For more than 10 years, millions of workers have benefited from Microsoft cloud-based services, including Hosted Exchange, Outlook Web Access and Live Meeting. Earlier this year, we announced Microsoft Online, which businesses such as Coca-Cola Enterprises, Blockbuster, and Energizer are using to access Exchange and SharePoint over the Web. Last month, more than 1 million people turned to Office Live Workspace for sharing and collaborating over the Internet.
We will deliver Office Web applications to consumers through Office Live, which is a consumer service with both ad-funded and subscription offerings. For business customers, we will offer Office Web applications as a hosted subscription service and through existing volume licensing agreements.
We will show a private technology preview of the Office Web applications later this year. For more information about this and other details about the Office Web applications, people can sign up for Office Live Workspace at workspace.officelive.com.
Read the full interview.
< personal opinion >
ALL YOUR CLOUDS ARE BELONG TO US
< /personal opinion >
October 28, 2008 at 2:13 pm ·
Filed under Video, Technology, Releases, Cloud Services
Tune in for this webcast to learn more about Azure.
Manuvir Das, Director in the Windows Azure team introduces us to Microsoft’s new cloud operating system, Windows Azure. Is Windows Azure a new OS from Microsoft? Well, sort of, but not in a strict sense (e.g., Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008). That said, one could say that Windows Azure extends Windows to the cloud. That is, Windows Azure provides a highly scalable virtualization fabric for server-side application execution, deployment, automatic management, and simple storage. Windows Azure provides the base infrastructure for services in the cloud.
Hat tip: @hansver
If you want to dig even deeper, and I mean really to the bottom of this, check out Steve Clayton’s big link-o-rama
October 27, 2008 at 5:22 pm ·
Filed under Technology, Releases, Live Services, Cloud Services
Ray Ozzie just publicly announced our Software + Services platform Azure. The Azure Services Platform is built on the Windows Azure operating system in the cloud. Windows Azure provides service hosting and management, scalable storage and a development environment for the Azure Services Platform. The Azure Service Platform includes:
- SQL Services for relational data storage and querying
- .NET Services for service-connectivity, workflow, and messaging
- Live Services for application extension of the Windows Live platform
- SharePoint Services which provide extensibility for SharePoint Server
- Dynamics CRM Services which provide extensibility for Dynamics CRM
Rough timeline today is that we’re entering community tech preview with this announcement, which will be extended to Beta early next year to then in the Summer become available on a wide scale.
About the Azure Services Platform:
- The Azure™ Services Platform means flexibility, choice and control – customers can take advantage of the scale of the cloud and the control of on-premise solutions, with ease of use on-ramp, less complexity and an open platform.
- Microsoft is extending the Windows platform to the cloud with an application model that spans the server, Web, PC and mobile devices.
- Customers have the power of choice with the Azure™ Services Platform to customize their services environment with the right tools and technologies that meet their individual and business needs. They can take advantage of one, all or a combination of technologies that make up the Azure™ Services Platform.
- The Azure™ Services Platform provides web developers with a simple platform to build rich social applications and experiences across devices that connect with one of the largest audiences on the web.
- Developers will experience an integrated and simple way to start creating applications in the cloud now while bringing existing and familiar assets with you - tools, skills, languages, and runtimes.
About the Live Platform Services/Live Framework:
- Live Services enables developers to engage large audiences with rich social sharing embedded experiences, and to connect the power and scale of the web to rich client experiences across a world of digital devices.
- Live Services enable data synchronization and local accessibility across many end points including PCs, smartphones and the Web.
- Live Services uses an open-standards programming interface and resource model that spans devices.
Get your goodies on Azure.com (or the microsoft/azure URL it redirects to)
October 27, 2008 at 4:58 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife
Writing that last post about diversity at Microsoft reminded me of a promise I’ve made to Kris a little while ago. I’d get a super funky microspotting.com shirt if I promised to write about it. And so, I totally forgot about it until just now. Never too late to do something right, as they say, so let me take some time to dig deeper in the Microspotting concept. Microspotting is the home of Ariel Meadow Stallings the place where she collects her photos and ramblings about the supposedly-Evil Empire and what it’s really like to work for it. Microspotting is about other people. It’s about everyone who works at Microsoft, somewhere tucked away behind the humming noise of the servers or blinded by natural light as they emerge from behind their twilighted screens. Microspotting is ‘us Microsoftees’, through Ariel’s eyes. There’s not going to be a more pure or more honest way to get to meet the faces and people behind the products and services.
Why? I hear you ask… Well, let me quote it in Ariel’s words:
In my time with the company, I’ve realized that many of my preconceptions about Microsoft weren’t quite right. Boring, corporate, stiff, evil? Huh. Not really.
Tune in, and you’ll see why she’s right. So what’s up with the t-shirt? Good question. (I often ask myself good questions, I know) Well… to get the word out, you’d get a really cool shirt if you’d write about Ariel’s project and link her up. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. I already have the shirt, so it’s about time I paid back some. You had to take a picture of yourself in the shirt (which I did somewhere in July when I was at the campus looking up some buddies) and then post it on your blog. And here we go.
So, go check out Microspotting, and meet some cool folks!
By the way, Ariel, I nicked your empire badge from your blog and I’m putting it on mine. Way too much coolness to pass on it. Just so you know.
October 27, 2008 at 3:18 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife
Cleaning up my inbox, I bumped upon this little project from HR. It’s some sort of campaign site that’s been created before we focused on Silverlight, that’s for sure. That aside, the general idea driving this initiative is one worth highlighting.
At Microsoft, we believe that diversity enriches our performance and products, the communities where we live and work, and the lives of our employees. As our workforce evolves to reflect the growing diversity of our communities and the global marketplace, our efforts to understand, value, and incorporate differences become increasingly important. Come explore diversity at Microsoft!
Check out YOU@MICROSOFT to learn more
Learn more about Diversity & Inclusion at Microsoft
October 27, 2008 at 2:05 pm ·
Filed under Live Services
This one is for the more busy people in Belgium (and for a small part in the surrounding countries). Did you know you can set up TV alerts like the one below for any keyword on MSN, and they’ll keep an eye on the TV guide for you. Just insert the name of your competitors, clients, favorite holiday country, sports, movie director or artist and you’ll be notified when they’re on! The alerts service is a Belgian special, it tracks about 26 stations, including the big international ones as well as local tv channels. Saved me quite some time since I signed up for it.
Have fun setting up your own TV alerts here:
FR https://extra.msn.be/tvalerts/fr/Login.aspx
NL https://extra.msn.be/tvalerts/nl/Login.aspx
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